The author refers to the "Asian Tax" as the "Asian Penalty." As an American of Chinese heritage, he went to considerable lengths on his college applications to hide evidences of his ethnicity. Why? Because he wanted to be accepted at an ivy school (he ended up at Yale). A compelling article.

Jim, why did you name this discussion The Asian TAX? This topic does not seem to be about taxation at all but of the efforts by the admittedly somewhat snooty administrations of some of your high class colleges to maintain traditional high standards and a seemly tone on campus by keeping out the riff-raff.

Please read the linked NYT article; you will discover why "The Asian Tax" was chosen as the title. And, it wasn't about maintaining "traditional high standards" - rather, the opposite.

My above post (see little green man included) was intended to be ironic Jim. Sorry if you are too dumb to have picked that up.

Jim, why did you name this discussion The Asian TAX? This topic does not seem to be about taxation at all but of the efforts by the admittedly somewhat snooty administrations of some of your high class colleges to maintain traditional high standards and a seemly tone on campus by keeping out the riff-raff.

Please read the linked NYT article; you will discover why "The Asian Tax" was chosen as the title. And, it wasn't about maintaining "traditional high standards" - rather, the opposite.

My above post (see little green man included) was intended to be ironic Jim. Sorry if you are too dumb to have picked that up.

Hope you finally get around to reading the NY Times article (and maybe the others). But if not, please be assured that the article was not about maintaining "traditional high standards," as you stated. It was about denying admission to some of the best qualified applicants, thereby lowering the quality of the incoming freshman classes. If you find irony in that, well ...

It strikes me that Ivy League colleges aren't nearly as good as they used to be. In fact I heard a blurb on the radio yesterday that said American Colleges in general are not what they used to be Factoids:

70% of students on average in individual courses get an "A"
Class attendance on any given day is 64%.

The theory as to why those numbers are what they are is that public institutions are basically non profit even though parents are paying big $$ to send their kids to them. They figure the parents are paying for a piece of paper After 4 years of charging them so much who are they to deny their kids that piece of paper, even though quality of education does matter it is easier to give out participation certificates(and more profitable) than require effort to get the grades. The Faculty get big $$ The school trust get big $$ The Administrators get big $$ and the banks get big $$ from financing the high tuition.

ANd even with that the are many other actors to point the finger of blame at including the students, parents. Certainly a lot of the blame goes to the primary and secondary schools system that seem to care more about the teachers unions than educating the children. It all rolls down hill.

I remember the protests in Wisconsin state house "This is what democracy looks like" they chanted. It would have been more accurate to chant:"This is want a failing democracy looks like."

“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” … George Orwell